Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-08-27
AMONG THE LAWYERS.
The Scribe Enters into the Mysteries
Of the Practice of Law-An Hour
With an Eminent Practitioner.
What Young Lawyers Had to Con
tend Against Formerly.

A law Office is not an attractive place.
1t is not enjoyable. There is dust and
gloom apparent, as you enter, that Is not
inviting. There is an air of scrupulous
disorder in every article Of furniture.
Everything that is necessary is there;
plenty OF books and papers, envelopes,
stamps and stationery CT all kinds, but
who ever sew a lawyer with good pen?
one that would not scratch aud screech
as you drew it across the paper SIS though
it said: "Hi, there. What's that you're
writing?" Who ever heard Of 8 LAWYER
that kept q pen free from rust and de-
cay, one thatiwould not cross its legs like
ballet dancer, stick through the paper,
and sputter splotches OF ink on every
| thing? If there be such an one let him
now speak, or forever hold mis- peace.
There is a gravity and double-wldth dig
nifty there there is decorous secrecy Wis
| ible-not obtrusively SO, but it quietly
peeps from the Tulkinghorn book shelves,
| from the Tulkinghorn desks, from the
Tulkinghorn papers with TulklnghO1n
red strings around them, lying on Tu
Kingdom tables, in which lco Talking
horn drawers with Tulklnghorn keyhoIes
in them. There is reserve, mystery snd
| silence. A peal CT laughter would sound
| like comic song in Q norgue, and q
quick, active movement appear ike an
Irish Jig in q funeral procession. The
| younger members Of the profession are
not so formal, but they will get there
soon enough. The young lawyer shows
his connection with the affairs OF life not
so much by the appearance Of his o-ice as
by the side room adjoining, where the
hair-lipped pitcher and cracked
water bowl is, ald where the
rusty knife stands g solemn SEN
| tinel in the hollow cavern of an exca-
waited watermelon rind. There are other
| things sometimes in young lawyers
side-roem suggestive OF Worldliness, but
they are usually empty and the piece OF
lemon peel in the bottom only makes
| US mad. AS has been observed
hereinbetore, they grow out Of this
| bravely. They become practical and lose
the measured professional step and the
regulation long coat. When young
lawyer torgets some college notions ne
begins to study law. When he can lay
aside his claw hammer and don a short
coat he is making money, His first few
months are passed in terror. He is in
|
for an ordinary mortal on one side and
ne Charybdis of being taken for clergy
man on the other. he IS ambitious,
dreamy, visionary for awhile only, IN
! less he has money enough to keep him
from the necessity OF exertion, and il he
! has, he seldom reaches prominence.
THE GAZETTE reporter learned this
much from one of the ablest, Oldest and
most successful of Fort Worth's legal
| gentlemen, into whose Office the scribe
had dropped yesterday to while away an
hour or two. There is but little enter
tMnm ent in listening to law points, to
man who could not tell an ''exeCutory de-
wise" from two pair of boots, nor soon
tingent remainder" if he met it running
loose in the pasture. There are Incl
dents in the practice Of al professions,
| however, which ere interesting generally,
| and | begged my legal friend to tell NE
his experience.
az may not be good SAN pie, and my
| experience may not be 8 good average,
| but presume it is dissimilGr from others
in the profession only in degree and de-
tall" he began. 81 wes c lawyer, full
fedged and sauguine, for some time be
| fore l learned the sort Of law necessary
in the practice. l hung around the
courthouse about four years before l
learned much, because l imagined |
knew it all at first and would
not condescend to learn. l took up an
idea that al exhibition o. oratory was
all that was necessary to send my fame
beyond the walls of the world, but this
never could obtain. You see things were
different then from what they are now.
Books were books in those days. Libra
ries could not be had for they did not eX-
ist as they do now, and the arbitrary rules
of the common law prevailed. Young
lawyers could never get into codrt. Let
them be ever so particular with their
Declaration, they were sure to bump up
against a Demurrer the result would be,
their case would be thrown out of court.
There was no May it please the Court, l
ask leave to amend;' when sn old gray
bearded lawyer would get up and read
his technical defense, wherein reference
! to certain laws made and provided in
such cases. were referred te, you might
know your case was thrown out, and you
would know also, and for the first time,
that such Laws made and provided ex-
: listed. You see laws were not always
printed then as now, and it was only by
violating some Of them that you could
learn of their existence. Experience
meant something then. Experience means
something now but relatively very little.
, Our laws are codifed and simplihed, and
can be read by any one. In my time il
was different. 1t was humiliating to be
kept out Of court and pummeled every
r time you attempted to get IN with your
case, but the Joy of once getting before &
jury was commensurate, yea, q paymen,
with usurious interest for all the pangs
D suffered. 1t was then that the young law
? yer would pour forth his treasured ideas
& 10 honied sentences. He would extori
from jury, which he praised, but which
he believed in his soul prejudiced, yer
! dict for his client in spite of them. He
= WAS st last on equal footing with his ven-
. cradle prosecutor, and the bulwark of his
country's liberty would protect the in
terests Of his client. Commencing witt
the Old Day books, down through the
reign Of each successive monarch, he
traced, or imagined he traced, the inter
ests of his client, and concluded with q
peroratlon which he verify believed would
raise the machinery of justice high uE
/ above the noisome atmosphere OF yiciou:
It precedents. He sat down thoroughly ex
q hausted, thoroughly satisfied anc